![]() Prisoners of war were used for human sacrifice to satisfy the many gods of the Aztec pantheon, notably Huitzilopochtli, the chief god, who was god of war. The Aztec had a large and efficient army. Aztec government was relatively centralized, although many conquered chiefs retained political autonomy they paid tribute and kept commerce open to the Aztec. The priesthood was a powerful political as well as religious force. The political and social organization was based on three castes-nobility, priesthood, and military and merchants. Agriculture was well advanced and trade flourished. The Aztec further developed sculpture, weaving, metalwork, ornamentation, music, and picture writing for historical records. Aztec skill in engineering was evident in the fortifications of their island capital. The Aztec calendar utilized a 260-day year and a 52-year time cycle. They attained a high degree of development in engineering, architecture, art, mathematics, and astronomy. The Aztec Civilizationīy absorption of other cultural elements and by conquest the Aztec achieved a composite civilization, based on the heritage of Toltec and Mixteca-Puebla. Only in the west, where the Tarascan Indians severely defeated them, did the Aztec completely fail to conquer. Their subjugation of the people of Tlaxcala in the mountains to the east was bloody but only intermittent, and the Tlaxcala people later became allies of the Spanish against the Aztec. To the north they established hegemony over the Huastec, to the south over the Mixtec and Zapotec and even ventured as far as Guatemala. they became a powerful political and cultural group. For the next century they maintained a precarious political autonomy while paying tribute to neighboring tribes, but by alliance, treachery, and conquest during the 15th and early 16th cent. and until the founding of their capital, Tenochtitlán (c.1325) were a poor, nomadic tribe absorbing the culture of nearby states. They arrived in the Valley of Mexico from the north toward the end of the 12th cent. Their language belonged to the Nahuatlan subfamily of Uto-Aztecan languages. Aztec (ăzˈtĕkˌ), Indian people dominating central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest.
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